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[0:00] Psalm 45 says, To the choir master according to lilies, a mascal of the sons of Korah, a love song.

[0:11] So let me pray and I'll read. Heavenly Father, we are amazed that we are objects of your love.

[0:25] That from eternity past, you set your affection on us. You pursued us. And Lord, we want to grow in a measure of that love this evening.

[0:46] As we learn from Psalm 45. So please speak to us and lead us. Spur us on to prayer, Lord, from this Psalm.

[1:00] So we may pray according to your will. So that our prayer time may be guided and filled just by your spirit. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

[1:16] Amen. So let me read Psalm 45 out loud.

[1:34] It says, My heart overflows with a pleasing theme. I address my verses to the king. My tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.

[1:48] You are the most handsome of the sons of men. Grace is poured upon your lips. Therefore, God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword on your thigh, almighty one, in your splendor and majesty.

[2:04] In your majesty, ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness. Let your right hand teach you awesome deeds. Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies.

[2:18] The peoples fall under you. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.

[2:33] Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia.

[2:45] From ivory palaces, stringed instruments make you glad. God, daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor. At your right hand stands the queen in gold of a fear.

[2:58] Hear, O daughter, and consider and incline your ear. Forget your people and your father's house, and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him.

[3:11] The people of Tyre will seek your favor with gifts, the richest of the people. All glorious is the princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold.

[3:23] In many colored robes she is led to the king with her virgin companions following behind her. With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king.

[3:33] In place of your fathers shall be your sons. You will make them princes in all the earth. I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations.

[3:44] Therefore, nations will praise you forever and ever. This is entitled a love song.

[3:54] It's a wedding song. And weddings are really some of the happiest occasions that we get to experience as humans. And I recall at many weddings, the groom or the bride or both, and even just some members of the audience will cry, just tears of joy and gratefulness.

[4:14] And I think that's because there's something about a wedding that's just profoundly moving and strikes a chord deep in our hearts. Because it's just so beautiful to see one man and one woman give of themselves to each other in a total and unreserved manner.

[4:35] Just exclusive manner. Like to no one else I give you this affectionate commitment but to you. And there's that covenant love that I think we long for because God put that in us to desire it.

[4:47] Because it's been his intention all along to marry us. Really to redeem a people for himself and to marry them. He uses that language throughout the Bible. And that's why Ephesians 5.31-32, quoting the first marriage between Adam and Eve in Genesis 2.24, says, Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

[5:11] This mystery is profound. And I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church. Right? So that self-giving love of marital union is supposed to point to Christ's relationship with the church.

[5:23] So there's something about a wedding that's eternal that points to our eternal reality and union with God. And so Psalm 45 is a divinely inspired wedding song.

[5:34] Right? I mean, who gets to have that at their wedding day? Right? But I mean, I guess we could use this psalm in people's wedding names. But it's praising an idealized marriage of a Davidic king to a princess.

[5:47] And because the Davidic king, or the whole line of Davidic kings, prefigured and pointed to Jesus Christ, who is the ultimate, the greater David, the final, ultimate king in the line of David, that it's appropriately applied to Jesus.

[6:06] And that's, in fact, what the author of Hebrews does. In Hebrews 2, verses 8-9, it quotes verses 6-7 of this psalm, and it applies it to Jesus. It says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

[6:18] The scepter of the kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companion.

[6:29] And so it's appropriate, even though this psalm was written, to really kind of elevate the king and his marriage in the sight of all the peoples. For us, it's an appropriate application to elevate Christ and his relationship with the church in the sight of all peoples.

[6:45] And that's what I'm hoping to do. And it's in verse 1. The psalmist dedicates this poem to the king. He starts by saying, My heart overflows with the pleasing theme. I address my verses to the king. My tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.

[6:58] So this is a time when poets, maybe it takes more gifting to do this, but they didn't take time, hours, to write the poem and to change, go back and scribble it back and forth.

[7:08] They composed orally. So he's singing a poem as he goes. And so that's why he says his tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. He's writing through speaking.

[7:20] But even though that would be a difficult task, because the king is so praiseworthy and this marriage so beautiful, he's able to flow just freely and unhaltingly.

[7:31] It flows like a ready scribe, just writing down something that someone dictates. He's able to praise the king in that manner. And then in verses 2 to 5, he describes this Davidic king in superlative terms.

[7:42] He says, You are the most handsome of the sons of men. Grace is poured upon your lips. Therefore God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword on your thigh, almighty one, in your splendor and majesty.

[7:53] In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness. Let your right hand teach you awesome deeds. Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies. The people fall under you.

[8:04] I mean, he's got everything, right? The king is the most handsome in his appearance. He's gracious in his words. He's mighty in his power. And he's splendid in his majesty.

[8:16] He's victorious in championing the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness. He's awesome in all his deeds. I mean, so this is an amazing king and husband.

[8:27] And then suddenly in verse 6, the psalmist interrupts his praise of the king by addressing God himself directly. He says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

[8:38] And so this is a little bit interesting because he's talking about Davidic king. Why does he all of a sudden address God directly? He says, your throne is with us. And the reason seems to be that it's because the Davidic kings were representatives of God himself, right?

[8:55] They reigned in really God's stead because they were appointed by God to reign over God's people. And so because of that, he's applying, even though he's praising the king in his reign, he's applying that ultimately to God, that it's his throne that's established forever.

[9:10] And that promise really echoes what God had promised David in the first place from 2 Samuel 7, 16. He's promised, David, your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.

[9:25] Your throne shall be established forever. So the king's throne will endure forever because it's the throne that represents God's eternal reign. So those of you guys who just got here, we're in Psalm 45.

[9:38] And then Psalmist resumes praising the king directly in verses 6 to 9. And the way he describes it, right, that this Davidic king is really all that has, possesses all that you could desire in a prospective husband and a king.

[9:57] And all these positive, superlative descriptions of the king are ultimately fulfilled by Christ our king because he's the one that David and all the kings in the line of David pointed to.

[10:08] And so this is helpful for us because we are often in our Christian lives lured by, you know, others who possess power, right? Maybe we're lured by, you know, political power or by just verbal power or military power, physical power, or, you know, just we want to be able to control our lives, right?

[10:27] So we long for that. But then in those times when we're tempted by power, lured by power, we have to remember that our royal bridegroom, the king to whom we are betrothed, the king to whom we are married, really, through Christ, surpasses everyone in power.

[10:44] And sometimes we're lured by beauty, right, by the fleeting beauty of this world, whether it's to trying to beautify ourselves or to draw on to beauty in other things. And when we're lured by those things away from Christ, then we also have to remember that Christ surpasses all in his beauty.

[11:02] And Christ is worthy, is the worthy bridegroom who deserves our exclusive worship. And that's really the main point of this passage. And because Christ is the worthy bridegroom, the bride that is brought forth here gives total commitment to this king.

[11:18] And we see that in verses 10 to 12. In verse 10, the psalmist turns from addressing the king to addressing the princess that's about the mayor to the king. It says, Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear.

[11:30] Forget your people and your father's house. That's quite a stark thing to say, right? But it's what Genesis 2.24 teaches, right? Therefore, a man shall leave his father's household, right, and cleave to his wife, and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh, right?

[11:49] So then in a marriage, right, after getting married, the wife no longer looks to her father as the primary male figure in her life. She now looks to her husband, right?

[11:59] And the husband likely no longer looks to his mother as the primary female figure in his life. He now looks to his own wife, right? And that doesn't mean that we no longer honor our parents.

[12:12] I mean, we're called to honor our parents all our lives, right? That's one of the Ten Commandments. But it does mean that we leave our old allegiances behind to form a new allegiance in a new family, right?

[12:26] And that's what marriage means. And so then in the same way, this is addressed to this princess. Leave your, forget your people and your father's house. It's really similar to what Jesus tells one of the people who are interested in following him in Matthew 10.37.

[12:39] Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, right? So whatever our former allegiances were, right? Whether it's to family, to ethnicity, to country, like we must forget our people and our father's house and then give exclusive allegiance to our king to whom we are married, right?

[13:00] To Christ the king. And exclusive in the sense that all the other loyalties and loves and commitments that we have must flow from our exclusive allegiance to Christ, right? So that's how we should live and that's how Christians should be defined.

[13:15] And then the psalmist promises, then the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your Lord, bow to him. That's our duty as the church, as his bride, to submit to him as our head, as our king.

[13:28] Worship him and love him. And as befitting this amazing king, the bride also seems to be quite a worthy match here.

[13:40] So the psalmist praises the bride in verses 13 to 14. All glorious is the princess in her chamber, same word that was used to describe the king, glory. And with robes interwoven with gold.

[13:52] So that's, she is glorious. And then it says in many colored robes, she is led to the king. So it says she's beautiful, right? And then with her virgin companions following behind her, with joy and gladness, they are led along as they enter the palace of the king.

[14:06] So the bride is leading a train of virgin companions because she is herself a pure, unblemished virgin, preserved in holiness for basically the wedding night with the king, right?

[14:19] And this is how basically all the bride, the bride of the royal groom should be. They should be glorious, beautiful, and holy.

[14:31] But unfortunately, God's people throughout history, and as you see over and over again in the Old Testament, are unfaithful, right? And they are described over and over again as adulterous.

[14:43] They're not faithful to the king to whom they are betrothed. And prophet Hosea describes it in the first three chapters of his book. He says God's people have been a wife of whoredom, Hosea 1-2.

[14:56] That's ultimately us. That's who we have been. We have been wives of whoredom. We whored after other gods. Instead of trusting in God for our security, we have run to idols of money for security, right?

[15:11] Instead of running to God for our identity and acceptance, we have idolized how others perceive us. The smart one, the athletic one, the pretty one, right? Even the godly one.

[15:22] We turn to things other than God to define us. Instead of delighting in God and his eternal pleasures, right?

[15:32] We have wallowed in the shallow and fleeting pleasures of earth. Things that will not be in heaven. Things that will not last. And even though God himself gave himself to us in a total way, in an unreserved way, in an exclusive way to his people, we have been unfaithful.

[15:51] We've denied him and not been committed to him. We have shamefully cheated on him. And then we have to ask, then what can we do? Then this ideal picture of this marriage is totally broken. And though we have played a whore, Christ, our royal bridegroom, redeems us, as we know.

[16:08] And then he reconciles us to himself. And we see a picture of that again in Ephesians 5, 25 to 27. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.

[16:40] Isn't that amazing? I mean, Christ gave himself for us so that even though we messed it all up and we whored after other gods and we don't deserve to be married to this perfect king, we can now be a glorious bride again because of Christ's grace, because of what he's done for us.

[16:59] And we could again be a bride that has no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and blameless. That's the grace of God, right? And because of what he has done for us, we overflow with praise toward him and we bear many spiritual children, right?

[17:18] It's for Christ. And it's verses 16 to 17. It's because of Christ's overture, our marriage to Christ can also be fruitful like the marriage that's described here. It says in verse 16, in place of your fathers shall be your sons.

[17:31] You will make them princes in all the earth. So that's basically the psalmist is saying that this Davidic king will always have a son to reign in his place. So his fathers will be replaced with his sons.

[17:41] His sons will be the princes of the land. And for us, this promise is fulfilled in Christ because Christ reigns forever. And he promises in his word that his people will reign with him, right?

[17:52] So we reign with him as his, and as we continue to grow, as people are continually brought into his kingdom and people are adopted to him, to the father as sons, right?

[18:05] So this kingdom continues and goes forth. And then we praise him as the psalmist does and he concludes in the same way he started in verse one with first person language, praising God.

[18:16] He concludes in verse 17, I will cause your name to be remembered in all generation. Therefore nations will praise you forever and ever. And so that's our calling too, to praise him.

[18:28] And because Christ is the worthy bridegroom, we should be a worthy bride in worshiping him. And that's really the main point of this psalm.

[18:38]  Thank you.